General computer use without an optical drive?

[ICIT2LOL]

Would an external drive (USB2) operate at the same speeds as an internal (SATA) drive (ex. would it take longer to install Windows)?

I do have some DVD's that I'd like to rip to my HDD incase something happens to the original. If internal is faster, I guess I should keep it.

Hum well I have an older Benq that works real well if I have to but I have so many spares I don't need to

 

[alphanumeric]

I doubt my external is faster than an internal, but for me its more convenient to have the one external burner. My daughter had a netbook so it came in handy to make the recovery disks. I also do some fix it work on friends and family PC's. There is usually about a 50/50 chance the internal drive doesn't work. More so if they have small children. It's always nice to have options. It wasn't cheap when I bought it, but I don't regret buying it.